Television Interview, Sunrise

SUBJECTS: Housing; Defence Estate; Defence Budget

HOST, NATALIE BARR: For more, let's bring in our Defence Minister, Richard Marles, live in Canberra. Morning to you.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, RICHARD MARLES: Good morning, Nat.

BARR: Is now the time to wind back our military presence in our big cities?

MARLES: Well, I don't accept that that's what we're doing. I mean, this is an important step to take because right now we are spending a lot of money on properties that we fundamentally don't use. You can look at Spectacle Island, for example, in Sydney Harbour, I mean, we spent $4 million on securing that over the last four years- we haven't had a member of the Defence Force on that property since 2023. And we have Defence Plaza in the centre of Sydney, which is only 40 per cent utilised, which is a state of the art office building, and we've got people at Victoria Barracks Sydney which really doesn't suit what they're doing, while we've got state of the art facilities which are not being used. So, this is an important step to take in rationalising it doesn't see any reduction in people in the cities in terms of recruitment and retention- I frankly think this argument is a red herring. The fact of the matter is, when we came to government, the Defence Force was shrinking. We've got it growing again now. Separation rates are much lower than the average. We've got more people showing an interest in joining the Defence Force than we have for decades. And so we're actually getting recruitment going. But we simply cannot continue to spend money securing property that we don't use. And this has been put in the too hard basket for a very long time. Our government is now doing something about it.

BARR: Okay, speaking of spending, we're being told the capital gains tax discount is in the firing line for the May budget. Will you scale back that concession?

MARLES: Well, our position in relation to housing policy and indeed the tax arrangements around housing policy, haven't changed. And, you know, we recognise that there are issues in respect of housing affordability and there's intergenerational challenges here, but our focus has been dealing with this by addressing the supply side, in other words, building more housing. And that has very much been our focus over the last few years and continues to be our focus moving forward. We've got to see more houses built in this country. That's the way in which we tackle housing affordability and that's the way in which this government is pursuing this issue.

BARR: Okay. You're not ruling it out, though?

MARLES: Well, I've made it clear and other Ministers being asked this question have made it clear over the last few days. Our policies in respect of housing haven't changed and nor have the tax arrangements around housing policy- they haven't changed either.

BARR: Okay, just looking at it, if it's a possibility, because a lot of people in this country have investment properties and this would affect them. Is Treasury modelling the removal of the capital gains tax discount?

MARLES: Our position in relation to housing policy has not changed and that includes the tax arrangements around housing policy.

BARR: But it could, I guess if it hasn't changed, doesn't mean it's not going to. Have you got Treasury looking at it?

MARLES: Well, all we can do here now is, is explain to people, you know, what are the challenges that we're facing in relation to housing? - 

BARR: I think they know.

MARLES: And what is our strategy in terms of dealing with them? And our strategy has been on the supply side. It is about building more houses. So, you can see what the government has been trying to do, what we will continue to do in respect of this and in terms of the tax arrangements around housing, they have not changed.

BARR: Yes, we know they haven’t changed -

MARLES: And our position on them hasn't changed.

BARR: We know it hasn't changed at the moment. But you've got The Greens on your side and so you could get this through. Are you likely to look at it?

MARLES: I mean, you're putting forward a whole lot of speculation there. 

BARR: Not much, just a little bit. 

MARLES: The fact. I mean, all I can do now is tell you where the government is at and our position on this has not changed. And I don't think I can be clearer than that.

BARR: Okay, thank you very much, Richard Marles.

MARLES: Thanks, Nat.